One divorce in particular is filling the airwaves and newspaper pages recently – the divorce of professional celebrity Kim Kardashian and professional basketballer Kris Humphries. Just 72 days after their televised $10 million wedding, Kardashian filed for divorce. But such a divorce wouldn’t be possible in Illinois, where a couple must wait at least six months after the date of their marriage to be divorced.

In Illinois, there is a two-year waiting period for divorce. That means that a couple must be separated for at least two years to be divorced. However, the parties may waive the two-year requirement and divorce after just six month of separation by citing the reason for the divorce as “irreconcilable differences.”

While Kardashian cited irreconcilable differences as the cause for her divorce, California laws are not the same. In Illinois, a judge requires parties to a divorce to state the date of their marriage. A divorce less than six months from the date of the wedding won’t be entered by the court until the six-month period has tolled. And in that case, the parties would essentially have to claim that they’ve been “separated” since the first day they were married.

To constitute “separation” under the Illinois law, parties are not required to live in separate residences, or even sleep in separate rooms. While the date of separation must be stated on divorce documents, a “separation of the mind” or a “separation of the heart” is also an acceptable form of separation.

For parties who are divorcing in less than a year from the date of their wedding, there usually are fewer disputes as to how to divide any property acquired during the course of the marriage, also known as marital property. Both parties are legally entitled to keep wedding gifts from their respective families and friends. Gifts received from mutual friends must be divided 50/50. For example, if a set of 12 place settings is received by a couple as a gift from a mutual friend, husband and wife are each entitled to take six place settings. Other gifts that aren’t divisible are divided in just proportion.